Podcast appearances and mentions of harland clarke

By the time Russell Lester landed inside Intuit's department of analysis in 2009, the unremarkable career path on which he had first set out nearly 10 years earlier had become brimming with possibilities. Back in the early 2000s, Lester tells us, he was hired by the company Harland Clarke (now Vericast) as an analyst specializing in customer information and insights. “This was not traditional finance, and I was sort of tiptoeing around what we would broadly call ‘analytics' today,” remembers Lester, who notes that his adeptness with data analysis eventually resulted in his assignment to a role responsible for pioneering the company's performance management discipline, which subsequently helped to open the door to Harland's financial planning and analysis function. At the time when a recruiter for Intuit called, Lester was responsible for overseeing Harland's FP&A discipline. It seemed that one of Intuit's divisional presidents was seeking to hire a senior finance executive with a distinguished data insight and analysis resume. “I had the FP&A background, and at the same time it was clear that I had been involved with things that touch the customer as well as the go-to-market team,” recalls Lester, whose career at Intuit is notable in part for his inclusion on the due diligence team involved in the headline-grabbing sale of Intuit's financial services data insight division to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for more than $1 billion. No longer an anomaly, Lester's customer-centric, data insight resume was now capable of opening doors to both senior finance and operational roles. In 2017, Lester accepted a VP of marketing operations position with Keap, a CRM applications vendor that immediately tasked him with establishing a single source of truth for data across the organization. It wasn't long before Lester's world was once again intersecting with the finance function, a development that eventually led to broader planning and analysis responsibilities across both operations and finance. A couple of years later, Keap found itself in search of a new finance leader—a development that Lester was monitoring somewhat passively until a mentor challenged him to throw his hat in the ring.   “He told me that he thought that I was already ‘doing the work' and that I should have a conversation with board—so I did,” explains Lester, who would be named CFO of Keap in early 2020. Reflecting on the career path behind him, Lester can't help but draw our attention to the quarries of customer information that he once mined daily. Says Lester: “We all perhaps have heard the advice ‘Connect yourself to numbers, and you will always have a job.' Well, someone once told me: ‘Connect yourself to the customer, and you will never go hungry.'” –Jack Sweeney 

Host Peter Gwaltney is joined by NCBA Hall of Fame Inductee and Lumbee Guaranty Bank, Chairman of the Board, Larry R. Chavis. Listen in as Larry talks about how he still enjoys the opportunities to interact with bank customers, shareholders, and employees in his almost fifty years in banking. Larry shares the importance of putting a solid team of leaders to maintain a successful history and foundation that the Lumbee Guaranty Bank started in 1987 as the president and CEO. Harland Clarke sponsors this episode.

Andy Saner lives by the idea that asking questions is important. In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Saner, senior vice president of product engineering and data services at CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, a Vericast business, describes the value of applying such curiosity to help match members with appropriate credit union offerings during the moment when they're opening an account. “When you've got employees that during the time of account opening ..., you're asking questions, you're learning more about that member's needs and what they have to have,” he says in the show. “You understand … through those questions … insight into the member's needs. Maybe they're open to trying something different in managing their money or a different vehicle for payments and the like.”Being curious, asking good questions and applying the data you have on the new account opener has two main purposes, Saner explains. “It helps you match up better the products and services,” he says. “But it also deepens that relationship. That's really what we're all after. … It creates a deepening, long-lasting engagement that really becomes not only profitable for the credit union—let's be honest, that's part of it—but the other extent is that you really feel good about helping your members serve their needs.“It's a noble profession, financial institutions, you know, in the work that we provide,” he continues. “You're getting people into … their first home, (helping them) the first time that they buy a car, (providing) student college loans…. Maybe they're taking a … trip for the first time and they're needing just a little bit of help getting through that. It's really kind of a unique opportunity where you meet people at the point they may need you most.”In the show, Saner also gets into:The role of credit union staff in helping members connect with appropriate products and servicesHow to re-engage with members after the moment of account openingThe balance of digital delivery with high-touch personal serviceLinks for this show:TranscriptGuest sponsor: CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, a Vericast businessRecent related content from Harland ClarkeCommercial sponsor: CUES Supplier member PlansmithBecome a CUES Supplier memberBecome a CUESolutions providerBecome a sponsor of CUES content

My portfolio of professional technology and organizational experience is very diverse. I have successfully led large multi-national IT organizations covering broad technical domains. I have also effectively managed small ("start-up environment") teams to build out efficient repeatable processes with positive client impact. In many aspects, I have been a continuous change agent responsible for implementing large-scale process frameworks, enterprise platforms, and shared-services re-org utilizing various industry methodologies such as ITIL and Six Sigma. I specialize in large-scale enterprise technology operations, IT service delivery, business intelligence/analytics, process architecture, PMO/portfolio management, strategic blueprint development, and workflow optimization. I enjoy engaging cross-organizational teams to design quantitative metrics-based strategies that drive and continuously improve organizational behaviour. My company history includes Fortune 500 organizations such as Fiserv, AT&T, Johnson Controls, & Compaq. In addition to mid-size companies such as Harland Clarke, Sterling Infosystems, and Cbeyond. Connect with Rasool: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasoolm/ Website: https://www.belancing.com/

Highlights from the  June 17 webcast “7 Banking Fraud Myths BUSTED.” This event featured Kellyn Burns -  Vice President, Financial Institutions & Strategic Partnerships at Sontiq; and Andy Shank, VP Fraud and Risk Product Management for Harland Clarke, a Vericast Business.   The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at https://www.cutimes.com/2021/04/28/why-fraud-protection-is-vital-for-credit-unions/

n more ordinary times, mergers and acquisitions are huge undertakings for credit unions. They're both challenging and exciting. Those characteristics haven't changed as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) but the pandemic-driven digital transformation that has occurred adds a new layer of complexity and consideration to the process. This episode of the CUNA News Podcast features Carrie Stapp, senior vice president of financial institution product management at Harland Clarke. In her role, Stapp works with financial institutions to plan, manage, and execute engagement strategies. This is particularly important during mergers and acquisitions, when existing and acquired members need to know they are valued and how they will benefit from the changes.  Stapp points out that mergers and acquisitions in the financial services industry have picked up during the pandemic, and convenient, scalable digital tools are essential for shepherding members through the M&A process. She explains how mergers and acquisitions can affect the member experience as well as employee morale, and provides guidance for effective communication with members and staff at various stages of the M&A road map. Stapp also shares crucial advice for making the most of the membership base acquired during an M&A and honing the member service experience so contact centers are well-prepared to support requests and answer questions from beginning to end of the process.

The lending opportunities in 2021 are starting to look different from 2020's. How can financial services organizations benefit from a customer's new priorities? Stephenie Williams, executive director of acquisition solutions at Harland Clarke, discusses how multi-loan preapprovals can help.

Jana Miller Schmidt is a Board Member at Girl Talk, Inc., a nonprofit committed to empowering girls everywhere to be confident leaders through peer-to-peer mentoring programs. She is also a Board Member at WebBank, an FDIC insured, state-chartered industrial bank. Throughout her career, Jana has led startup, mid-sized, and mature fintech and martech companies in the financial services, payments, retail, and energy industries. Her past positions include President and CEO of Harland Clarke, CEO of QuickPivot, President and CEO of Ecova, and many others. In this episode… Is your company putting off updating its outdated security systems? Are you intimidated by the costs of overhauling your current security and privacy practices? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, C-suite executive Jana Miller Schmidt has some advice for you: it's all about long-term investment. While updating your legacy systems might seem unnecessary, expensive, or strenuous, it actually costs much more in the long run to ignore the risks that outdated systems present to your company. As Jana says, maintaining a future-focused mindset is key — which means it's time to start investing in your legacy systems today. In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels sit down with Jana Miller Schmidt, a Board Member at Girl Talk, Inc. and WebBank, to discuss her tips for mitigating privacy and security risks both personally and professionally. Listen in as Jana talks about developing your privacy and security ecosystems, protecting children and teenagers from privacy threats, and prioritizing up-to-date legacy systems for your company. Stay tuned!

When you can help members avoid being scammed—or at least help them overcome it, they’ll be grateful for your actions in the long run.In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Andy Shank talks about things credit unions need to keep in mind when it comes to preventing and mitigating fraud. Shank is VP/fraud and risk management for CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, San Antonio, Texas, the sponsor of this show.“A lot of folks in the banking world kind of treat fraud as this, you know, scary little animal that we just try to shut in the closet and not talk about,” Shank says in the episode. “But if you don’t talk about it, and you don’t approach it, and you don’t, you know, really attack it head-on, you allow it to win.”In the show, Shank spells out his definition of payments fraud: “anytime a bad guy electronically finds a way to move funds from point A to point B without authorization and without setting foot in a branch.” This could include contact center fraud, social engineering, wire transfer fraud, account takeovers and card skimming. “Basically, it’s the bank robbery of the 21st century,” he says.Shank says everyone loses when someone gets scammed—the financial institution, the member, even society.  A former task force officer with the FBI and state police detective, he talks about his passion for stopping bad guys from stealing other people’s money. To him, helping a member avoid a fraud attempt or overcome being scammed is a true act of service.“There are surveys and studies out there that say, … digital detection of fraud on accounts is one of the bigger factors for acquisition and retention of customers,” he explains in the show. “So, they may not appreciate it at the moment when you’ve told them that they’re being defrauded—and that the money may be gone forever. But at the end of the day, they will appreciate or at least they should appreciate the fact that their credit union was looking out for them and that they use they got that kind of personal attention to hopefully stop them from losing any more money.”The show also gets into:Shank’s background in criminal justice and law enforcement as it applies to his work today for Harland ClarkeThe value of cooperation among law enforcement agencies and among credit unions in the fight against fraudThe impact of the pandemic and remote work on fraudThe financial institutions most targeted by fraudstersShank’s most eye-opening experience while working to fight fraudLinks for this show: CUES Supplier member Harland ClarkeCU Management magazine feature about collaboration as an aid to fighting fraudTranscript of this show

The challenges of social distancing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have launched the contact center to the forefront of credit union member support. The contact center serves as the ideal channel to provide crucial services and personalized assistance to members and businesses dealing with hardships.This episode of the CUNA News Podcast features Terri Panhans, vice president, contact center solutions, for Harland Clarke. Panhans shares essential strategies for delivering empathy throughout the service experience to deepen member connections and strengthen credit union brands.She manages all aspects of Harland Clarke’s contact center solutions, including development and deployment of solutions that help clients acquire, grow, and retain their customer bases.

Welcome to another episode of Develomentor. Today's guest is Philip Noyed. Philip Noyed is the tech creative director at Caring Bridge and a multimedia artist living in Minneapolis. Philip Noyed is an innovative multi-media artist living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His art work represents the quintessential contemporary art movement making use of creative technology that is changing the way art is viewed today. His artwork is often called “contemporary stained glass” and can be customized for a variety of architectural and design applications. The finalized artwork can be incorporated into acrylic, glass, tubes, fabric, wall coverings and can be customized to meet your design requirements. While located in Minneapolis, he has shipped artwork across America and Internationally.If you are enjoying our content please leave us a rating and review or consider supporting usA note from GrantAfter 120+ episodes of Develomentor, I finally have the opportunity to interview someone who is in the very role that inspired this show in the first place: the creative director. All the way back in episode 1, I talked about how my son inspired this show through his love of both art and technology and how that led to wanting to showcase all the different ways people can participate in tech. Today’s guest, Philip Noyed, has indeed combined a love of art and technology to build a successful career as a Creative Director. As with all of our guests, there is of course more to the story. Philip started his journey by earning a degree in East Asian Studies from Hamline University before living in Japan for a number of years working as a communications specialist while studying Japanese and honing his artistic side. Since returning to the United States and joining the tech revolution in the early 90’s, he has helped companies like Fingerhut, Schwan’s, Harland Clarke, Caring Bridge and Target establish and grow online presences with a deep focus on user experience and usability. Philip has also, along his path, developed and grown as an artist, combining the physical and digital, including virtual reality, into a deep and rich portfolio at the cutting edge of modern art. I’d also be violating my Minnesota heritage if I didn’t mention that he worked as a Production Assistant on Prince’s Purple Rain movie. Additional ResourcesCheck out Philip’s Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/user8614335(Books)Deep Work by Cal NewportYou can find more resources in the show notesTo learn more about our podcast go to https://develomentor.com/To listen to previous episodes go to https://develomentor.com/blog/Connect with Philip NoyedLinkedInhttps://www.philipnoyed.com/Connect with Grant IngersollLinkedInTwitterSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/develomentor)

The pandemic came to the fore while CUES and Industry Insights were fielding this year’s compensation and salary surveys. But fortunately, great data was still collected that can form an excellent foundation for credit unions making decisions about executive compensation and staff salaries.“It provides us a great base for moving forward, for understanding the true impact of COVID, says Michael Becher, vice president of Industry Insights, CUES' partner in producing CUES Executive Compensation Survey and the CUES Employee Salary Survey. “This data is very, very relevant” and can support decision-making about pay levels now and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Becher says the increases in pay for staff and executives highlighted by the CUES surveys are bigger than those reported across all industries in the U.S. WorldatWork has reported increases for staff and executives of 3% to 3.3% for the last few years. “CU increases have been more in the 5% to 8% range,” he adds. CUES Executive Compensation Survey reports increases on all of the 22 positions it covers, including increases in base salary, bonuses and total compensation.“It shows the strength of the credit union and financial services industry,” Becher says, “ … and it’s just a nice thing if you’re in the credit union space.”During the show, which is supported by a commercial from CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, Becher also describes how the CUES survey has been looking at the pay situation for women since 2018. The survey finds that 47% of credit unions with less than a billion dollars in assets employ a female CEO compared with 39% of credit unions with more than a billion dollars in assets. Not surprisingly, the pay for CEOs at smaller credit unions is typically lower than the pay for CEOs at larger credit unions. Becher also says eight positions covered by the survey have a higher rate of women: HR executive, chief member solutions officer, marketing executive, retail branch executive, compliance exec, chief operations officer, regional branch management executive and chief operating officer. “We’re still pretty early in collecting this type of information,” Becher says. “We’re looking forward to continuing to collect this information.”Laura Lynch, products and services manager at CUES, says in the show that the surveys provide important data to help credit unions see if they’re competitive with their peers. Only with the data can they choose to pay executives and employees at a particular level, whether that’s at market, above market or below market. “A lot that goes into compensation package and the data is an important part of that,” Lynch says. “We’ve been known for providing that competitive data for many years. “There are lots of tools where they can create that peer group,” she adds, referring to the reporting tools included with both surveys that allow credit unions to “slice and dice” the data to help them make decisions.Links for this episode:Michael Becher at Industry InsightsCUES Executive Compensation SurveyCUES Employee Salary SurveyCommercial sponsor: CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke2019 compensation podcast

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated both the move from cash to cards, and the use of advanced card technology including contactless cards, central issuance, and instant issuance. But it hasn’t changed the need for credit unions to be top of wallet with their cards. The best way to achieve that goal is by building member engagement, according to Nicole Machado, executive director, product strategy card services, for Harland Clarke, a CUNA Strategic Services alliance provider. In this episode of the CUNA News Podcast, sponsored by Harland Clarke, Machado explains how to build a best-in-class engagement strategy through payments, how to become top of wallet, new developments in the card arena, payment trends accelerated by COVID-19, and more.

[Want an easy $50? if you leave a WRITTEN review on Apple Podcasts, you're entered into a $50 Amazon gift card raffle which we'll announce the winner of every other Thursday.] Tye DeGrange (@tdegrange) is the CEO and Principal at Round Barn Labs, a growth-as-a-service agency that provides paid marketing and conversion rate optimization services for some of the world's greatest brands, including eBay, Porsche, and ModCloth and startups backed by Andreesson Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Google Ventures. Prior to Round Barn Labs, Tye was a Head of Growth at Amazon, Harland Clarke (customer engagement for financial services), and Quotient Technology (acquired by coupons.com) where he scaled customer bases, lowered CAC by launching untapped marketing channels, and consistently finding and solving sticking points in the "customer journey". Tye also is an active member of the Reforge growth community, a San Francisco-based growth focused learning series led by world-renowned growth practitioners like Andrew Chen (Uber, Partner at Andreesson Horowitz) and Brian Balfour (HubSpot). Tye holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from University of California, Santa Barbara. This episode was very introspective. Tye himself is a humble, thoughtful, and excellent marketer with a wealth of knowledge in digital marketing. He's incredibly good at what he does (customer acquisition), and thus an inspiration for someone like myself. In this episode, we talk about growth marketing as a concept, the duopoly of Google and Facebook as behemoth ad marketing sources, and the inception & growth of Round Barn Labs. If you're looking to reach your growth goals more efficiently, give them a peek here. This episode is particularly valuable for 1) anyone looking for a foundational understanding of paid acquisition or the evolution of digital marketing over the past 15 years, or 2) anyone who has considered starting a marketing agency or consultancy and wants some 1st hand commentary from someone doing it well. SHOW NOTES: https://bit.ly/2Hq9cwZ  Connect with Jakub Kubicka: Visit The Daily Marketer PODCAST: https://jakubkubicka.com/category/podcast/ Visit the Jakub Kubicka BLOG: https://jakubkubicka.com/ Follow Jakub Kubicka on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jakub_kubicka Follow Jakub Kubicka on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/j_kubed/?hl=en Like Jakub Kubicka on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kubickaconsulting/

[Want an easy $50? if you leave a WRITTEN review on Apple Podcasts, you're entered into a $50 Amazon gift card raffle which we'll announce the winner of every other Thursday.] Tye DeGrange (@tdegrange) is the CEO and Principal at Round Barn Labs, a growth-as-a-service agency that provides paid marketing and conversion rate optimization services for some of the world's greatest brands, including eBay, Porsche, and ModCloth and startups backed by Andreesson Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Google Ventures. Prior to Round Barn Labs, Tye was a Head of Growth at Amazon, Harland Clarke (customer engagement for financial services), and Quotient Technology (acquired by coupons.com) where he scaled customer bases, lowered CAC by launching untapped marketing channels, and consistently finding and solving sticking points in the "customer journey". Tye also is an active member of the Reforge growth community, a San Francisco-based growth focused learning series led by world-renowned growth practitioners like Andrew Chen (Uber, Partner at Andreesson Horowitz) and Brian Balfour (HubSpot). Tye holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from University of California, Santa Barbara. This episode was very introspective. Tye himself is a humble, thoughtful, and excellent marketer with a wealth of knowledge in digital marketing. He's incredibly good at what he does (customer acquisition), and thus an inspiration for someone like myself. In this episode, we talk about growth marketing as a concept, the duopoly of Google and Facebook as behemoth ad marketing sources, and the inception & growth of Round Barn Labs. If you're looking to reach your growth goals more efficiently, give them a peek here. This episode is particularly valuable for 1) anyone looking for a foundational understanding of paid acquisition or the evolution of digital marketing over the past 15 years, or 2) anyone who has considered starting a marketing agency or consultancy and wants some 1st hand commentary from someone doing it well. SHOW NOTES: https://bit.ly/2ROnw4n  Connect with Jakub Kubicka: Visit The Daily Marketer PODCAST: https://jakubkubicka.com/category/podcast/ Visit the Jakub Kubicka BLOG: https://jakubkubicka.com/ Follow Jakub Kubicka on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jakub_kubicka Follow Jakub Kubicka on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/j_kubed/?hl=en Like Jakub Kubicka on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kubickaconsulting/

COVID-19 has everyone hyper-aware of many things that most of us didn’t think twice about before. Take cash, for instance. Who wants to touch paper bills or coins nowadays when they don’t know who’s been handling that money before them? As a result, cards are used for even the smallest transactions. Nicole Machado, executive director of product strategy for card services at Harland Clarke, discusses the latest in card technology, and how the pandemic has particularly spiked demand for cards that don’t require punching in a PIN.

High employee turnover is a common and challenging problem for many credit union contact centers, often harming member service and raising operational costs. While many reasons exist for high turnover, the best way to address this issue is to focus on culture, according to Terri Panhans, vice president of contact center solutions, and Tracy Gudmundson, vice president of contact center operations, for Harland Clarke. This episode of the CUNA News Podcast, sponsored by Harland Clarke, examines the reasons for high contact center turnover, why culture is so important, the components of a healthy culture, and more.

Highlights from the April 14 webcast “Mergers, Acquisitions, Conversions… Oh, My! Ensure Your Next Change Event Has a Happy Ending for You and Your Members.” The event was sponsored by Harland Clarke and featured Terri Panhans, Vice President of Contact Center Solutions, and Ron Hasbrooke, Senior Sales Executive, both from the company.   For the full, on-demand presentation, you can find it at https://www.cutimes.com/2020/02/28/how-to-turn-high-pressure-change-events-into-high-reward-member-experiences/   About Terri Panhans Terri Panhans is the Vice President, Contact Center Solutions for Harland Clarke. She manages all aspects of the contact center solutions programs that are supported by Harland Clarke. In her role, Terri is continually focused on helping clients connect with their customers how, when, and where it matters throughout the entire relationship. She and her team achieve this by developing and deploying solutions that create meaningful engagements to assist clients in their acquisition, growth, and retention efforts.   Terri began her career at Harland Clarke in 1993 as a Regional Call Center Manager in Dallas, Texas. She has held the positions of Servicing Project Manager; Regional Call Center Manager in Charlotte, NC; Director of Servicing for National Accounts; Executive Director Contact Center Solutions; Assistant Vice President of Sales & Marketing; and Vice President of Channel Development. She was appointed to her current position in February 2012.   Terri earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Texas A&M University in 1982. She also attended the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration in 2002.   About Ron Hasbrooke   Over the last 20 years, Ron has gained extensive expertise and experience in contact centers and financial services. From this solid foundation, he built strategic contact center solutions for financial services companies needing customized inbound and outbound communication support for acquisition, growth and retention initiatives.   Ron’s knowledge of how contact centers and financial services companies operate enables meaningful discussions with senior executives, contact center and customer experience leaders and marketing teams. He understands operations, metrics and technology, and knows the role of culture in driving customer experience, employee engagement and financial results. Ron listens carefully to needs, challenges and opportunities to help strategize and propose consultative solutions that align with goals. Ron’s specialties include: strategic planning, consultative sales, contact centers, major account relationship management and executive level collaboration.

In today's episode, we will be talking with our good friend, Taiye Lambo. Taiye is Founder of CyberCops Europe, UK Honeynet Project, eFortresses, CloudeAssurance and HISPI.  He was the first and former CISO for the City of Atlanta, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy & Continuous Improvement for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Director of Information Security (Divisional CISO) for John H. Harland (now Harland Clarke).  Listen in as we discuss his new book Attribution and his approach to cybersecurity, among other things. You can connect with Taiye in the following ways: Website: https://www.hispi.org  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taiyelambo. You can get a copy of Attribution here: https://www.amazon.com/Attribution-Social-Spaces-Taiye-Lambo/dp/0578634678 At Tech & Main, we want to be YOUR technology partner.  Let our 20+ years of expertise help you achieve the outcomes that are best for your business: cloud, SD-WAN, data center, security or anything else.  We have engineers and project managers available to assist you. Call our office at 678-575-8515, email us at info@techandmain.com or visit us at www.techandmain.com.  Thanks for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/techandmain/message

Being able to demonstrate a member-centric culture at your credit union during a crisis like the current coronavirus pandemic is evidence that you are customer-centric, Carrie Stapp says to lead off this episode.It’s “not just 'Are we friendly?' and 'Do we have the right technology?' but 'Are we really set up as an industry to help our members and to help our communities adapt in these times of uncertainty and to be able to do as much of their business as usual?'” says Stapp, SVP/product management for the marketing services division of CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, San Antonio, Texas, the sponsor of this show.Stapp’s colleague, Jeff Hassemer, SVP/marketing, adds: “If we define being member-centric as 1) being always on, 2) staying at the top of your members’ minds and 3) delivering a positive personalized experience everywhere every time, in a sense, the thing that changes in a crisis like this is the message. It’s not necessarily about how you contact them or what you say or what apps you use…, it really is about you being able to understand what the mindset of the member is right now and delivering the right message to them and the right story that needs to be told.”Crises aside, Hassemer recommends taking using data-driven techniques to deploy information across all of a credit union’s channels to enable speaking to members in a relevant and meaningful way. Stapp reminds listeners in this episode that a truly holistic approach to customer experience looks at consumers even before they ever become members. This is “not just about the account opening experience but really breaking it down and looking at the consumer and bringing that holistic view” into everything the credit union does. There’s a lot of buzz about customer and member experience in the financial services world today. Hassemer says that’s because we’re entering a world in which customer experience is the only true differentiator.“You can try and compete on products and services, although I think it’s very difficult in the financial services industry to do that. Most of that becomes very commoditized. There’s only so much free checking or toasters that you can give away to get people in the door. Your product differentiation is kind of gone.“We’re also facing an unprecedented amount of competition in financial services. Not only are we getting competition from … the mortgage lenders or the auto lenders, … but we also have just as much competition coming in from the technology organizations, these new fintech startups that are coming through. “The only way to stave that off is to have a uniquely strong customer experience to your members and make sure that relationship you’ve built with them withstands that test of all these other organizations trying to come in and steal them away from you.” The show also gets into:Examples of what a person’s first interaction with a credit union might look likeWhat expectations other companies are setting for customer experienceSteps for putting a superior customer experience in placeHow credit unions can assess where they are with their customer experience effortsAreas of customer experience in which credit unions excel—plus where they can improveHow to measure the “return on experience”The future of customer experience

Rachel Scheuerman, director of engagement solutions for Harland Clarke, takes substantial pride in developing relationships as part of her everyday work.In this CUNA News Podcast episode, sponsored by Harland Clarke, she discusses customer engagement as a competitive advantage. In the face of increased competition and commoditization driven by rock-bottom pricing, customer engagement is now table stakes for credit union success.Customer engagement is the new branding, Scheuerman says. Consumers today want more than a one-off transaction.Instead, they seek relationships that add value to the consumer experience. Frequently cited examples include Amazon and Zappos.Your browser does not support the audio element.“Credit unions have a big story to tell,” Scheuerman says. But getting started on the consumer engagement journey can be overwhelming.She advises credit unions to start with their own culture and then work on building relationships with members.This requires living and breathing member engagement it in every aspect of your business, including employees, members, and the community at large, Scheuerman says. “It's about collectively agreeing on the definition of engagement and what it means to you. Don't over-complicate things.”

On April 14, 2018, the island of Kauai in Hawaii was deluged with a historic rain storm.As with all natural disasters, basic daily needs such as food and clean water were suddenly at a premium. Kauai Government Employees Federal Credit Union, under the leadership of CEO Monica Belz, was at the forefront of recovery efforts on the island.Belz even delivered supplies to members via jet ski.“We got the board of directors together and asked, ‘What is our role as a credit union? What can we do?’" she tells the CUNA News Podcast. “I put my laptop and other supplies in a dry bag and jet skied, boated, and swam to the most remote region.”As you will learn in this podcast, sponsored by Harland Clarke, Belz is uniquely suited for an emergency response. But her leadership qualities extend far beyond natural disasters.As a millennial CEO, Belz has a wide range of international business and community-building experience as well as a fearless spirit that make her the kind of leader who can help credit unions shape their future in a global marketplace.

Despite a newfound fascination with customer engagement, banks know it's a constantly moving target that doesn't reward indecision or momentary distractions. It takes strong resolve and concentration to stay on top of it—and strategy that leverages all that data and high tech have to offer. Carrie Stapp, SVP of product management at Harland Clarke, sees the key to customer engagement as enabling the easy use of the products consumers value most. On this podcast, she discusses how banks can achieve this goal through a smart mix of personal interaction and harnessing valuable customer data.

The focus of credit union contact centers has changed a lot in 20 years. While once they emphasized helping members perform transactions, today they focus on helping members deepen their relationships with their credit unions. Our guest in this episode is Terri Panhans, VP/contact center solutions for CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke based in San Antonio, Texas. Panhans talks about how things have changed and what the changes mean in terms of the skills contact center agents now need, how to measure call center performance, and more. Special thanks to our episode sponsor, Harland Clarke.In the show, Panhans says the contact center of the past was “more transactional in nature, really more viewed as a back-office function—one that was necessary, but it wasn’t perhaps driving value or being a part of the strategy of the credit union. Now I see that it is evolving into an engagement center and members’ expectations really drive that. … Many times, they will define their impression of the credit union by the experience they have when the contact the call center.”Panhans provides two great checklists in the show—one for the skills credit unions should look for when hiring contact center agents and another about things to consider regarding contact centers when setting a credit union’s overall strategy.The show also busts the myth that younger members don’t ever want to use the phone to talk with their financial institutions. Panhans says, “The desire among all generations of a personal interaction with their financial institution … has never been higher, especially in the event of an emergency or an issue or needing to specify a problem outside of the self-service channels.“You need to offer the channel of choice and your members are going to decide which one that is,” she adds. “You can’t pigeon-hole or put members into one channel and expect that just because that’s what you think they should use, they will.”In the show, Panhans also describes key performance measures that work well for today’s contact center and how to collect those measures.Be sure to tune in to the full episode!Links:CUES PodcastCU ManagementHarland Clarke

Cut your reading time and listen to a podcast instead. This week’s BondCast compares the AUD and USD, discusses the latest DirectBond from Harland Clarke and AT&T’s new Australian dollar issuance

Episode 14 - Pat McGrew and Kevin Craine explore printing in South Korea, why according to Tim Cooper of Harland Clarke, 'facts don't count,' and the value of print with Ryan McAbee from Keypoint Intelligence. Also, listener comments from Jimmy Vainstein at WorldBank.  Would you like to be on the show? Visit http://IsPrintDead.com/guest

David Porter, CPA/CMA/CGMA is this week's guest on Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast! “What's the toughest major?” As you are going to hear from the audio interview, David has built his career by never shying away from a challenge. In fact, that willingness to accept a challenge started early in his career when deciding what to choose as a major in college. He asked his advisor what the toughest major was in the business school, and accounting was the response… so he chose accounting. Staying curious & helping organizations improve David's career started along a common path, working at a CPA firm for a few years until moving out into industry. However, by staying curious, asking questions, and offering to help be a part of the solution, he was afforded opportunities to work in adjacent areas in roles such as the VP of Business Process at Cessna, VP Human Resources at Harland Clarke, and shorter-term positions as CFO and CEO at a few venture-capital backed organizations. “Hanging out the shingle” After many years leading organization through process improvement and change management initiatives, David decided to start his own consulting practice – David Porter Advisors. He focuses on executive level coaching, with some team coaching mixed in as appropriate. He consults with his clients on their people, processes, and key performance indicators (KPIs). For more information, please visit www.davidporteradvisors.com. If you have an interest in getting involved in change management, the core business processes of a large organization, or potentially starting a consulting practice, you are really going to enjoy this episode. We will see you next week!  Stay tuned – there's more to come… Mark Goldman CPA President – Where Accountants Go www.WhereAccountantsGo.com Enjoyed the episode but haven't subscribed? Click the orange ‘subscribe' button – https://whereaccountantsgo.com/blog/ – to be notified first of new Life In Accounting content!